An Unexpected Affair by Lorelei Moone Read Free Book Online

neurotic diet nuts, the ones who read the labels of whatever they eat, and seemed to revel in denying themselves any pleasure from food. No, Clarice was more of a hedonist, someone who allowed themselves to smell the roses - or eat the chocolate in this case. He appreciated that about her.
    But despite his best efforts, things had changed over the past week. No longer was his attraction towards her largely shallow, inspired by the odd glimpse or scent. Even when he had his back turned towards her, it was as if he could see her more clearly than when he was actually looking at her.
    Derek couldn't explain it without making comparisons to the stories his mother used to tell him. When bears found their mate, the one that fate - or biology, as Elise had put it - had in mind for them, they connected on a deep, subconscious level. They started to share a kind of understanding that didn't require words to communicate.
    Empathy as a term didn't quite cover what happened to bears and their soul mates. And if this wasn't happening to him now, he would have never even believed it was possible for a bond to run so deeply.
    When he walked past Moss Cottage, he could sense what Clarice was up to. If her work was going well or if she was pondering something. It wasn't clear, he wasn't a mind reader, but he always had some idea of her mood. In the evenings when she went for her short walks, he knew where she was without fail. He could pinpoint her position accurately, without even looking out the window.
    In the old stories, these strange feelings and bonds were always mutual, but in his case, they couldn't be. She was human. There was no way that she could sense things as keenly as he did. The story Elise had told him confirmed this, plus Clarice hadn't acted like she felt anything but unease for him.
    He tried to keep his thoughts about her to a minimum, to stay away from what-ifs and speculations on what might have been if she'd also been a bear and not a human. Instead, he'd marked the date of her departure in his calendar in bright red, and counted the days leading up to it with keen anticipation as well as dread.
    Today, they had crossed the half-way point between her arrival and impending departure. It was a relief that he'd gotten this far without doing anything stupid, but also a worry that in just a week, he'd connected so deeply with her. There was no way of predicting how much stronger her pull on him would get before she left.
    She'd worked as usual for most of the morning, then abruptly taken a break and gone out. He could hear her car start, and the crunch of gravel under her tires while he tidied up the raised beds in the kitchen garden. She was happy, almost triumphant as she left, and Derek caught himself whistling as he worked as a result.
    Only when she was gone, did he realize how distracting her presence on the farm had been. He hadn't even noticed the dark clouds and the electricity building in the air. Bad weather was coming, and it had completely caught him by surprise.
    He scanned the darkening skies, then hurriedly put away his tools and headed indoors. The radio confirmed his suspicions; the weather was going to deteriorate quite a bit, and the Met Office had even put out an amber alert.
    Hopefully, Clarice would be back by the time the storm hit. Weather could get dangerous on the island, and they were predicting gusts strong enough to cause quite a bit of damage.
    As he waited, he reorganized the stack of wood beside the fireplace. If the predictions were accurate, temperatures would plummet. Once he'd finished that, he headed into the kitchen to put on a pot of stew.
    If he wanted to stay alert, he had to make sure there'd be plenty of warmth and nourishment available to him, or the urge to hibernate would threaten to overwhelm his senses. Hibernation was something he wasn't willing to risk with a visitor on the farm.
    Just as the large pot started to simmer on the stove, and Derek had the chance to sit on one